Chile legalises gay marriage and allows LGBT couples to adopt as historic new bill signed

August 31, 2017 /
Pahichan Reporter

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet holds up a portfolio containing her signed proposal for a same-sex marriage bill at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago Esteban Felix/AP

Kathmandu (Pahichan) August 31 – President Michelle Bachelet has introduced a bill to legalise gay marriage, the latest in a series of recent reforms in a country long regarded as one of Latin America’s most socially conservative.

Bachelet signed the proposal, which will be sent to lawmakers, at a ceremony in the presidential palace. She said the measure seeks to expand the definition of marriage between a man and a woman and would also expand rights for gay couples, allowing them to adopt children.

“We can’t let old prejudices be stronger than love,” Bachelet said.

Chile’s Michelle Bachelet last woman standing in Latin America

Chile approved civil unions for same-sex couples in 2015 and decriminalised gay sex in 1999. The bill comes a week after Chile’s Constitutional Court upheld a measure that would end the country’s absolute ban on abortions.

Civil unions have been recognised in several South American countries, though only Argentina and Uruguay have codified same-sex marriage. Gay marriage has also been legalised in Brazil and Colombia under court rulings.

It’s unlikely Bachelet will be able to push the measure through Congress before she ends her term in March 2018. But gay right advocates celebrated the decision as an important step toward full rights.

“It’s the beginning of the end of discrimination based on sexual orientation to access marriage,” said Luis Larrain, founder of the Iguales Foundation.

LGBT rights across the globe

“This day will be remembered as much as the day when women were granted the right to vote, slaves were freed or children born out of wedlock were granted the same rights.”

There is not a uniform understanding among ordinary people about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people. Even the people who know about variance in this community address saying female, male and transgender. They, however, do not have proper... Read more